Talking back to council: More a tradition than a right
By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Darlington City Council is in the middle of changing the rules that control citizens’ ability to appear before council during its regular monthly sessions and say what’s on their mind.
And the public, not surprisingly, is concerned. Up until now, the rules about public comments have been very light.
You show up maybe 10, 15 minutes before a meeting, you sign up on a roster of people who want to speak that night, and you wait a little while for council to reach the public-comment section of the agenda.
They call your name, you go to the podium and say what you wish. Officially, you get five minutes, but no one is going to cut you off if you go somewhat over that.
The proposed new rules, expected to get a second and final vote March 5, would make things more complicated.
You would need to “meet with” Darlington City Manager Howard Garland six days before a council session to sign up. (No phone calls or e-mails? Council will probably amend the new rules to allow those, too. Six days in advance? This might be shortened.)
You would tell Garland what you want to talk about. You would be placed on the agenda; you would get three minutes to speak, and “personal attacks” on the mayor, council members or city staff would not be allowed.
It’s not really out of line with what some other city or county councils do. The city of Barnwell, for example, requires you to sign up with the city manager a full week in advance if you want to speak. Personal attacks on council members are commonly banned. Three-minute speaking limits are common. But coming after years of relaxed Darlington rules about public comment, it’s a shock for some. Here are some comments posted on the News & Press’ Facebook page:
“Sounds a lot like some foreign dictator countries that don’t allow opposition or opposing opinions to me.”
“Town council meetings should follow Robert’s Rules (of Order) and not the whim of some power-hungry minor elected official.”
“What a joke! … This is just insulting.”
I can’t predict whether council will give the new rules final approval. But the debate overlooks a larger issue: In South Carolina, city councils are not required by state law to let the public comment on anything during a regular council session … UNLESS the council is taking up the budget or “new service or user fees.” Public hearings on those two issues are required by state statute. With public hearings, you get public comment.
The Municipal Association of South Carolina, a group that works with local governments on tons of issues, made that point to me when I called them to see if anything in Darlington City Council’s proposed rules looked alarming to their expert eyes. (The staffer I spoke with declined to offer any value judgments on the Darlington ordinance; the group doesn’t point to one council and say “You’re doing it wrong” or point to another and say “You’re doing it right.”)
The S.C. Legislature never got around to requiring city councils to let citizens comment on anything they like during a council’s regular sessions? It’s true.
If every town council in South Carolina decided today to ban ALL public comment at regular meetings (except for public hearings on passing budgets or adding new service fees or user fees), they wouldn’t be breaking state law …. because there’s no law to break.
That’s scary. It’s not likely to ever happen just because there’s so much public scrutiny of S.C. councils between the news media, the Internet and watchdog websites and Facebook pages. Also, the weight of tradition – everyone just expects to be able to address their local council in person if they wish – is very strong. No council is going to tell citizens, “Get lost unless we’re voting on budgets or user fees.” But if one did, it would not be illegal under state law.
It might be a good idea for the Legislature to fix that sometime.
Getting back to the immediate issue for Darlington: How SHOULD council handle public comments? The Municipal Association won’t tell us the “best” way to do it, because there is no “best” way. But a recent issue of the group’s newsletter, Uptown, took a look at how one S.C. council does it.
The Beaufort County town of Port Royal, the newsletter reports, has two periods at each council meeting for public comments. The first is for people who want to talk about an agenda item. The second – at the end of the meeting – is for anybody who wants to talk about anything. If you like, you can speak during both periods; you get two minutes.
The newsletter reports that speakers sign up on a sheet, putting down their name, address and a sentence on what they want to talk about. The mayor gets the sign-up forms just before the meeting begins. And then there’s the timer.
“We use a timer, and usually everyone respects their time limit,” municipal clerk Tanya Payne told the newsletter.
“Occasionally someone will go over the limit. If it gets to the point of abuse, the mayor will ask them to close their statement. This has always worked well for us.”
